World's Most Powerful Laser Gets Government Go-Ahead

So this may be the first time we see lasers create particles create lasers create particles...ad infitum until the laser just goes "poof"? Cool!

-IMP ;) :)

I wonder how well it works at removing unsitely hair or old tattoos?

Finally, the technology to have a fully armed and operational deathstar.

You fool! This Deathstar is fully operational already!

:-P

@Ffh425 -

Excellent.......

- Darth Lithicus

Saw a new piece like this years ago, they were saying that Military vessels will have a mounted laser weapon by 2015. So pretty good prediction for them.
I heard the Air Force One already has a small mounted laser at the bottom to deflect rockets headed for the plane, anybody know if this is true?

The first thing we should do with when it is built, is destroy the moon. (stupid moon).

I say use it to write graffiti on other planets. Someones bound to come looking.

Look out, Alderaan!

arrange the three in a triangle, and the fourth most powerful in the center. Do some cool electro-magnetic stuff and combine them all.

Those alien invaders better be afraid.

you peabrain everyone knows that the moon is the only thing keeping earths axis relitivly stable.without it the axis would be all over the place.instead of moving a few inches a year on the north pole it be moving side to side upside down altering the climate and magnetic feild in such a dangerous way it would level cities easily.

oh and coolaidbeans the milt is mounting lasers on planse

and on the topic of the laser im wondering if we can make it smaller then WE will have the laser guns MWAHAHAHAHA!!

"I heard the Air Force One already has a small mounted laser at the bottom to deflect rockets headed for the plane, anybody know if this is true?"

Not true.

kehvan, this is true. i don"t know about military planes but in some passenger planes they have special laser and detectors which detect launch of missiles towards the plane and than the onboard lasers try to deflect this missile by dazzling it and by that directing it towards other direction. of course it works only against heat seeking missiles.

DIRCM FROM WIKI
"
DIRCM, or Directional Infrared Countermeasures, avoid this potential drawback by mounting the energy source on a movable turret (much like a FLIR turret). They only operate when cued by a missile warning system of a missile launch, and use the missile plume to accurately aim at the missile seeker. The modulated signal can then be directed at the seeker, and the modulation scheme can be cycled to try to defeat a variety of seekers. Countermeasure success depend on threat's tracking techniques and requires threats' analysis capabilities.[2] Defeating advanced tracking systems requires a higher level of DIRCM power. Issues of Laser Safety are also taken into account.

Israel has announced a program to develop a system called Multi Spectral Infrared Countermeasure (MUSIC) that will similarly use active lasers instead of flares to protect civilian aircraft against MANPADs.[3] The US Army is deploying a similar system to protect its helicopters.[4]

Department of the Navy Large Aircraft Countermeasures (DoN LAIRCM) provides infrared threat protection for U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E, CH-46E and CH-53D platforms."

hhhmmmmmm exawatt laser by 2015 lol yea good luck with getting that done on time and budget and still be safe

The most powerful lasers in the world and they're going to point them at people to detect and treat cancer, without vaporizing them? You would think that would be possible with the current batch of lasers...

I was thinking perhaps to zap asteroids heading for Earth or at least for sharks with frikin lasers... ;-)

What about the frickin sharks??

@Matt5327

DON'T CROSS THE STREAMS!!!

I guess we'll have a power black out in whole europe when they try to run that thing =P

Think about the geography for a minute, eastern Europe. The Russians don't like us building a ballistic missile shield in eastern Europe, so we get the EU to build giant lasers to "detect cancer", yea right. It seems more likely to me that these "superlasers" will be used to shoot down ballistic missiles or enemy satellites.

wtf why the Czech Republic? how about in the U.S.A were we will need it to shoot down creditors looking for payment to are deficit

@boka

Why in the world do you want to destroy the moon?

sweet. any details on when the handheld version will be available?